UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES-VNU, HANOI POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHAM THU HA USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM AUSTRALIA SCHOOL – HANOI (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRUYỆN NGẮN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI NGỮ CẢNH TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC VIỆT ÚC – HÀ NỘI) M.A. Minor thesis Field: Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI-2009 UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES-VNU, HANOI POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHAM THU HA USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM AUSTALIA SCHOOL- HANOI (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRUYỆN NGẮN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI NGỮ CẢNH TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC VIỆT ÚC – HÀ NỘI) SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS SUPERVISOR: PHÙNG HÀ THANH, M.Ed HANOI-2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale of the study 1 1.2. Aims of the study 3 1.3. Scope of the study 4 1.4. Research methods 4 1.5. Significance of the study 5 1.6. Structure of the study 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1. Literature and language teaching 6 2.1.1. Concept of literature 6 2.1.2. Features of literature 6 2.1.3. Using literature in language classroom 7 2.2. Short stories in language classroom 9 2.2.1. Definition of a short story 9 2.2.2. Benefits of using short stories in language classroom 10 2.2.2.1. Reinforcing the skills 10 2.2.2.2. Motivating students 11 2.2.2.3. Introducing literary elements 11 2.2.2.4. Teaching culture 12 v 2.2.2.5. Teaching higher-order thinking 13 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16 3.1. Sampling 16 3.2. Data collection instruments 16 3.2.1 Questionnaires 18 3.2.2 Interviews 17 3.3. Procedure of data collection 18 3.4. Procedure of data analysis 20 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21 4.1. Reseach question 1: How do teachers percieve the use of short stories in teaching English in terms of necessity? 21 4.2. Research question 2: How do students percieve short stories as a source of language input in terms of interest and importance? 22 4. 3. Research question 3: How do teachers exploit short stories in teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency? 23 4.3.1. The frequency of using short stories in teaching English 23 4.3.2. The purposes of using short stories in teaching English 24 4.3.3. The strategies to exploit short stories in teaching English 25 4.4. Research question 4: To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching English? 27 4.5. Research question 5: What are the obstacles that have limited teachers’ use of short stories in teaching English? 28 4.6. Research question 6: What are the obstacles that challenge students in learning English with short stories? 29 vi 4.7. Research quesetion 7: What are the recomendations and expectations for using short stories in teaching English given by students and teachers? 31 4.7.1. Teachers’ recommendations 31 4.7.2. Students’ expectations 31 4.7.2.1. Students’ expectations in terms of length, level of difficulty and theme of a short story 31 4.7.2.2. Students’ expectations for the activities in class 32 4.8. Summary of the findings from the interview 34 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 37 5.1. Major findings of the study. 37 5.2. Recommendations 38 5.2.1. Selecting and evaluating short stories. 39 5.2.2. Suggested techniques for integrating short stories in English teaching 40 5.2.2.1. Problems solving 40 5.2.2.2. Activities for using a short story in class 41 5.3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 41 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: SOME SHORT STORIES USED IN THE STUDY I APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS III APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS VII APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (Vietnamese version) X APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE XIII vii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS TABLES Table 4. 1: Students’ practice with short stories 23 Table 4. 2: Teachers’ purposes of using short stories in teaching English 24 Table 4. 3: Teaching strategies 25 Table 4. 4: Teachers’ satisfaction with the use of short stories in teaching English. 27 Table 4. 5: The obstacles in using short stories in teaching English. 28 Table 4. 6: Obstacles challenging the students in learning with short stories 30 Table 4. 7: Teachers’ recomendations 31 Table 4. 8: Students’ expectations in terms of length, level of difficulty and theme of a short story 31 Table 4.9: Students’ expectations for the activities in class 33 Table 4.10: Profile of the interviewees 34 FIGURES Figure 4. 1: The presense of short stories in the teaching practice of the teachers 20 Figure 4. 2: Students’ perception of short stories in terms of interest 21 Figure 2.3: The frequency of using short stories in teaching English 23 ABBREVIATIONS VAS: Vietnam Australia School- Hanoi 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background information, and states the problems and reasons for the study. It also outlines the overall purpose and objectives of the study, describes the significance of the study, poses the research questions to be answered and provides an overview of the research design. 1.1. Rationale of the study Today, English is the global means of communication. It is now an official language in more than 75 countries, with a total population of over 2 billion speakers. Three quarters of the world‟s mail are in English and 80% of the world‟s electrically stored information is also currently in English (Crystal, 1997). English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN and the official language of the European Central Bank (Wallraff, 2000). Briefly, with the spread of globalization and the rapid expansion of information technologies has come an explosion in the demand for English worldwide. Unexceptionally, in Vietnam, English is considered the key to success in modern life. The number of English learners has been increasing rapidly in the last few decades. To meet the demand, a great deal of schools and centers with special English teaching and learning programs have been set up everywhere, especially in big cities. Vietnam Australia School- Hanoi (VAS), a private high school which is located in My Dinh, Hanoi, is one example. Established in 2007, VAS is to offer an ideal environment for learning English. It cooperates with PLC, a famous school in Australia in curriculum and education programs. Students in VAS have to follow the English syllabus of Vietnam carried out by Vietnamese teachers. Besides they have global English and global commerce classes with Australian teachers, hence, there are many chances for them to practice and improve English in real life conversations with native speaking people. All of the parents hope that their children can have the best learning conditions, especially the best English learning environment so that their children will be able to go on studying overseas or to have the best preparation for their future. However, one of the challenges facing English teachers of VAS, including the author of this study, is composing extra materials. In VAS, students have five to six periods a week 2 with Vietnamese teachers, which is twice as much as other ordinary schools. Therefore, besides the textbooks, extra materials are needed. Normally, many teachers select or compose more written practice tests to drill what students have learned in the textbook. However, this type of materials does seem to have attracted much interest. Sometimes, extra written practice tests are blamed for a boring atmosphere in many classes. Thus, there should be variations so that students feel more interested in learning. In VAS, a number of sources of teaching materials such as poems, short stories, drama, films, English songs, etc. have been exploited now and then. Among these, using short stories as teaching supplementary materials has been taken into consideration for some following reasons. Firstly, short stories can be seen as an interesting and suitable source of teaching materials. As reading texts, short stories can serve the language skill drilling function quite well. More importantly, short stories in particular and literary texts in general are favorable for students‟ language and cultural development and personal involvement. Since literature enables students to understand and appreciate other cultures and societies, it encourages personal growth and intellectual development. According to Ibsen‟s view (1990), literary texts appeal to students in term of emotion and personal experience because each student will meet the text in his/her own way based on experiences and knowledge of literature and life. This creates meaningful and interesting discussions among students and draws on personal responses form learners. In other words, learners become more personally involved in the process of language learning and can begin to own the language they learn more fully. It also retains a good learning climate in a relaxing atmosphere. Moreover, in comparison with other sources of teaching materials such as written practice exercises, poems, films, English songs, short stories are believed to have several advantages. Written practice exercises as mentioned above do not always interest students. Poems seem rather complex and abstract for schoolchildren. Not every available English song and film which suits the taste of students can serve the language skill drilling function properly. Whereas, there is a variety of short stories to choose, ranging from elementary to proficiency levels. Relatively short, fun, memorable and meaningful short stories are not too difficult in terms of vocabulary, grammatical structures and syntax. Furthermore, they can 3 bring about room for endless debate where students can live in the real human experience world. Above language, they can learn many useful lessons about real life to develop their personalities. In Vietnam- Australia school, Hanoi, short stories are mostly used as supplementary material for teaching by Australian teachers and sometimes applied by Vietnamese teachers. However, there has been no official research on using them in teaching English. This study has been conducted with the purpose to investigate how other teachers and students think about the use of short stories in teaching English and to what extents they have employed them in their teaching. All these above explain why the author tries to do the research. It is hoped to result in useful ideas of using short stories in language classroom, especially in the context of Vietnam Australia School, Hanoi. 1.2. Aims of the study Parallel with the reasons leading to the research are some following aims: - To investigate the perception of students towards the use of short stories. - To study on the current use of short stories by teachers in Vietnam Australia School, Hanoi - To discuss some suggestions of using short stories in classroom such as selecting materials and using these materials in a way that is relevant to the students. This study seeks the answers to the following questions. 1. How do teachers percieve the use of short stories in teaching English in terms of necessity? 2. How do students percieve short stories as a source of language input in terms of interest and importance? 3. How do teachers exploit short stories in teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency? 4. To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching English? 4 5. What are the obstacles that have limited teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching English? 6. What are the obstacles that challenge students in learning English with short stories? 7. What are the recomendations for using short stories in teaching English given by students and teachers? 1.3. Scope of the study In this study, the author intends to deal with the question of using short stories beneficially in language teaching. Other literary texts are not concerned in the study. The study was conducted in VAS with the participation of 10 teachers, both Vietnamese and Australian, and 100 senior high school students, who were chosen randomly from the alphabetical list of names. The number of the teacher participants made up three- fourths and the students participants accounted for five-sixths of the whole population. However, the focus of the researcher was not put into junior high school students, so the implication might be not applicable in classes of junior high school students. 1.4. Research methods Data collection for analysis in the study are mainly gained through survey questionnaires and interviews. The questionaires aim at studying the students‟ and the teachers‟ attitude towards using short stories in classroom and their feedbacks after having lessons with short stories. Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews were conducted among the teachers to triangulate the data collected from the questionnaires and to gather further information. After that, the data collected were collectively analyzed to address the research questions. Tables, charts and diagrams were used for clearer presentation and comparison. 1.5. Significance of the study By looking into the perception of the use of short stories in English classes, the satisfaction of both teachers and students with their achievements and improvement in teaching and learning process, and the obstacles facing them, the study brings about an overall picture of the exploitation of short stories in VAS. It is hoped to raise the awareness of [...]... enhances their master of the language 4.3.3 The strategies to exploit short stories in teaching English The exploitation of short stories in teaching English was examined basing on the techniques applied in pre -teaching, while -teaching and post -teaching Table 4 3: Teaching strategies Items a Read aloud the stories b Underline or highlight all the unknown words and phrases in the story c Guess the meaning of. .. stories in teaching English in terms of necessity? From the beginning, the respondents had to answer the questions “Have you ever used short stories besides those in the textbook in your English teaching process?” Nine out of ten respondents said they had used short stories in their teaching process Only one teacher had never applied short stories in teaching Figure 4 1: The presense of short stories in the. .. stories and the techniques applied to exploit a short story Part 3 studies the satisfaction with the use of short stories in teaching English Part 4 investigates the obstacles in using short stories in teaching English In part 5, respondents can make any recommendations to ensure the better use of short stories in teaching English. The teachers who have already applied short stories in teaching English. .. teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency? For this research question, nine teachers who have used short stories in their teaching were under investigation The teachers‟ exploitation of short stories in teaching English were examined in terms of frequency, purpose and strategy 4.3.1 The frequency of using short stories in teaching English Although all of them said they had used short stories. .. besides the textbook in their teaching process, only three teachers (33%) used short stories in their teaching practice almost 24 every week Six out of nine teachers (67%) used short stories just from time to time, about several times in a semester Figure 2.3 :The frequency of using short stories in teaching English 33% Sometimes Usually 67% 4.3.2 The purposes of using short stories in teaching English. .. reviewed in chapter two, short stories have many benefits such as reinforcing language skills, motivating students, introducing literary elements, teaching culture, and higer –order thinking The purposes of using short stories in teaching English of the teachers in VAS have been investigated The question “how often is your use of short stories motivated by the following purposes?” has been raised and the. .. from the students 4.4 Research question 4: To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching English? About 67% (six out of nine) of the respondents said that they were satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching because they had achieved their teaching purposes and most of their students liked their use of short stories in class However, it is rather surprising... those teaching in VAS, of one possible source of teaching material, short stories It also informs teachers of the benefits of using short stories and suggests some useful ways of applying them in teaching English 1.6 Structure of the study This study is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1, Introduction, briefly presents the reasons for doing the study, its aims, scope, subjects as well as the research... consistent with the students‟perception of their teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching mentioned in the previous analysis of research question 2 In short, though the teachers had various aims when using short stories in their teaching practice, all of them had the same long-term goal, that is to form an instrinsic motivation in their students so that they will learn for their excellence, autonomy, and... university in Hongkong The group who read literary texts showed inprovement in vocabulary and reading What they read gave them the oppotunity to come up with their own insights and helped them to speak the language in a more imaginative way They became more creative since they faced with their own point of view, that/those of the main character(s) of the story and those of their peers Focusing on point of . AUSTALIA SCHOOL- HANOI (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRUYỆN NGẮN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI NGỮ CẢNH TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC VIỆT ÚC – HÀ NỘI) SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE. exploit short stories in teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency? 23 4.3.1. The frequency of using short stories in teaching English 23 4.3.2. The purposes of using short stories. OF VIETNAM AUSTRALIA SCHOOL – HANOI (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRUYỆN NGẮN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI NGỮ CẢNH TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC VIỆT ÚC – HÀ NỘI) M.A. Minor thesis Field: Methodology